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Losing $25M a day, The U.S. Postal Service could become “a significant burden to the taxpayer” if it does not get needed flexibility to change its business operations, Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe told Congress Wednesday.

Appearing before a congressional hearing for the first time since the Postal Service had to back away from a plan to reduce delivery days from six to five, Donahoe told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that ”the Postal Service is currently operating with a broken business model.”

“We are losing $25 million dollars every day and we are on an unsustainable path,” he added.

* “And, we need more flexibility in the way we leverage our workforce.”

Donahoe announced in February that a five-day delivery schedule would save $2 billion annually and would begin in August. He had to change course, he said, after congressional action “specifically designed to prevent the Postal Service from changing its delivery schedule. According to this law, we are now required to deliver mail as if it were the year 1983.”